I came across a small snippet of information today, which whilst not immensely discussion worthy, I still thought it was perhaps worth sharing. At the very least it is an intriguing window onto the production and a hint at some of the visuals we may be seeing in the final movie:

This comes from the resume of Bree Billington, a member of the Art Department on VDT, whom briefly describes some of the work she was involved with:

I suppose its conceivable that the "Library Set" could be for somewhere in the real world or on the Lone Islands, but i would perhaps most logically assume it was for Coriakin's House? The description for his room in the book is as follows:

It was a large room with three big windows and it was lined from floor to ceiling with books; more books than Lucy had ever seen before, tiny little books, fat and dumpy books, and books bigger than any church Bible you have ever seen, all bound in leather and smelling old and learned and magical. But she knew from her instructions that she need not bother about any of these. For the Book, the Magic Book, was lying on a reading-desk in the very middle of the room.

Sounds like a pretty good match for her description of "1000's of books. Painting, binding, aging" to me. Although there isn't any more information than that, its certainly enough to get my imagination running wild as to how spectacular the final thing will look Though if not, there was a very very tiny piece of concept art, presumably created for VDT very early on in the production that was featured on the Prince Caspian Monopoly game board, that also seems to show a very grandiose Library for Coriakin:

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#2: The Rose Garden Set

In case you missed it in the VDT Extras Casting thread, there was a bizzare casting detail of an actress playing an Extra in the "Rose Garden Scene":

At the time, LucyP theorised that the "Rose Garden" may be Coriakin's Garden, but i wasn't too sure that the set of Coriakin's Garden we saw contained any flowers at all, and none of us could think why Coriakin's Garden would require its own specific extras who weren't Dufflepuds or Ship Crew Members. Anyway, i don't think we got any further than that in speculating.

There was also a Gardening & Landscaping company that mentioned on their website that they were involved with Voyage of the Dawn Treader. And considering that the Coriakin's Garden set didnt actually seem to have any real plants or greenery in it, i might assume it was this "Rose Garden Scene" that they worked on?

Thirdly, something i came across a while back - a company in Australia which seems to specialise in Moroccan furniture mentioned in one of their newsletters that some of their moroccan lamps would be featured in the movie "Dragon's Prow", which as we all know is one of the code names used for VDT:

The Ed Hardy stores in Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide have chosen Metroscope's Moroccan lanterns for their decor.

More of our lanterns will be seen in the upcoming movie Dragon's Prow.

Pairing that information with what we've seen of Governor Gumpas' outfit, which many noted seem to be slightly Calormene in design, i would perhaps assume that some of the Lone Islands culture may have been designed with a Moroccan influence?

As far as a rose garden goes, my first guess would be Coriakin's garden, but like you said, we've seen at least part of that garden and no roses in site. My second thought would be Ramandu's island, but I think they're going for more of a heavy forested look based on an interview with Doug Gresham.

I do disagree on the lanterns though... at least, not being exclusively seen on the Lone Islands. They look awfully similar to the lanterns hanging on the Dawn Treader to me.

What was that other set that was mentioned via an extra? Some kind of party of some sort? *too lazy to look it up. *

fantasia_kitty wrote: What was that other set that was mentioned via an extra? Some kind of party of some sort? *too lazy to look it up. *

Oh yes, the "Ambassadors Wife at a Party". Like the Rose Garden Scene, the Party Scene is one that could conceivably happen at any different number of places in the story. Or perhaps even the Rose Garden and the Party are the same thing and its a Garden Party?

fantasia kitty wrote:I do disagree on the lanterns though... at least, not being exclusively seen on the Lone Islands. They look awfully similar to the lanterns hanging on the Dawn Treader to me.

That thought did cross my mind, though the one thing that made me think they perhaps weren't from the Dawn Treader was that we saw on Prop Maker Chris Martin's Website that he had hand crafted at least one of the lanterns on the deck of the Dawn Treader, so it might be reasonable to assume that the other DT lanterns were built to match, rather than being bought in second hand.

#3.1: Wallpaper and Fabrics

The other reason i thought the Lanterns perhaps they were for a Lone Islands, was that in addition to Governor Gumpas' style of clothing, there is also the following quote from a company who said they provided "Wallpaper and Fabrics" for use on the "Lone Island Movie Set" in VDT:

Obviously the Wallpaper dictates that it is an interior set, but i think the very fact that the walls will be wallpapered at all indicates a certain style to me, as i don't believe it was very common for buildings of that sort of period to be wallpapered. At the very least it suggests a room which is very opulent and fancy. Coupled with the mention of fabrics, and i can half imagine a sort of Moroccan influenced Palace interior, which i think Governor Gumpas would perhaps find himself very at-home in with that aforementioned outfit of his.

#3.2: Antiques and Set Decoration

Here are a few other companies which have listed that they supplied various props and set decoration pieces for Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which might help us to piece together in our mind what some of the potential unseen sets may look like. These antique dealers for example, i can imagine may of supplied various pieces to either Coriakin's Library or to any of the Lone Islands interior sets, and we have already seen a running theme of Shells incorporated into the Lone Islands Wharf set, so i think the shell company who had (previously at least) listed Dragon's Prow Pty Ltd as one of their customers may be relevant here too:

Thank you for sharing Icarus! Any little tidbits are always welcome, especially at this quiet time...

I agree with you about the costume we've seen on Gumpas. Moroccan inspiration for the Calormenes, hm? That could work. But I could certainly picture those lamps just about anywhere; in Coriakin's house, around the feast table on Ramandu's Island, as well as the Lone Islands.Even the DT, though I think you are right about hers being handcrafted especially.

I would guess that if an extra is included in the scene(s) involving a rose garden, that the garden is on the Lone Islands- unless there are supposed to be other humans on Ramandu or Coriakin's islands. I do think the idea of a "Garden Party" is a good explanation.

As a further very small point of interest, I found an entry on prop maker Ian Kath's website which confirmed that the following prop, which we have previously seen different photos of on his Twitter pictures page (in conjunction with the Doug Gresham podcast) are Book Stands (not that it wasn't fairly obvious, though part of me did wonder whether they might be very elaborate Dove Coots, given that hole in the side. lol. )

Anyway, i would imagine they would probably be associated with the aforementioned Library Set. Again, not much, but every little helps.

Found a couple more items of set dressing on the website of a Sewing Production company. None of them are particularly revelatory, but i figured it was worth reporting on anyway.

Savvy Designs Australia wrote: Savvy's props and costume manufacture experience comes from working on such projects as 'I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!', Nim's Island and most recently the third 'Narnia' movie.

Three of the photos there show work from Narnia, i'd assume the first two were background pieces for one of the Lone Island exterior shots.

"Bag made for third Narnia movie"

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"Canvas battery cover made for the third Narnia movie" (i would assume that means it was used to conceal a battery that was required for filming on set, not that someone in the movie is going to own a large battery that needs a nice cover )

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"Embrodery for the third Narnia movie" (no idea what this embroidery is from. Might not be for anything significant, but some of you costumers out there may want to take note, just in case it turns out to be from something significant

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Also, there is a picture of a custom handbag on there, and although it doesn't actually say its from Narnia, you might assume so since its located right inbetween the other 3 Narnia photos. Go to the website to see that if you so wish. And to see the other photos full-sized

There were a couple of photos from filming at The Spit which I originally had included in the first post here, but i ended up not including them because i felt they over cluttered the post and weren't really relevant, but I was looking at them again today and felt they raised a few interesting questions.

The photos come from the website of a Barge company who provided the use of Barges for supply transport and use as a filming platforms on the movie. The photos can be seen here, though not all are Narnia relevant:

We've seen the Dawn Treader rowboats in action before (with all the main cast members rowing out from the Dawn Treader to the Lone Islands Wharf) and you can see another shot of them here too (it also mentions that they used their Barges as a shooting platform for filming of the "Moving Rowing Scene") but it wasn't until just now that it made me think "Where did these boats come from?"

They are definitely rowboats from the Dawn Treader - we've seen them out of water before, and their paint work and patterning matches that of the main ship, and it of course makes logical sense for any ship such as the Dawn Treader to have its own row boats for getting to and from the shore - but where exactly are the boats when they are on board the Dawn Treader? We've seen hundreds of photos of the Dawn Treader, and lots of the deck itself, but in none of them have we seen these rowboats sat on deck or hanging off the side or anything. Neither have we seen any sort of mechanism for raising and lowering the boats from the deck to the water.

Maybe its one of those things we aren't supposed to question, but it kind of bugged me.

The Barge photos provide a fairly good look at one of the flags on the back of the Rowboats. Again, we've seen lots of other different flags and banners associated with the Dawn Treader in other set photos (including part of a design for the main sail), yet none has ever seem to make any sort of sense to me. Even when viewed in its complete form here i can't work out what its supposed to be. Its clearly supposed to be something. It doesn't strike me as being one of those things that's meant to be just a cool pattern, and very rarely in the Narnia films do they design anything without some sort of reasoning behind it, so it baffles me that all the many Dawn Treader flags would be so bafflingly vague.

One of the other photos on the Barge Company website shows them about to start shooting on the Wharf set. The set is virtually empty save for a couple of crew members in the far background, and the guy we had previously assumed to be a Calormene Slave Trader in the foreground, on his own standing by the waterside. I guess it could just be coincident he is stood there all by himself, but it would seem reasonable to assume he is preparing for a shot. Would seem to me he (and thus the Calormen in general) may have a slightly more significant role in the Wharf scenes, other than just being a background extra thing as a subtle wink to us fans.

The bags are nice. I like the unposted leather one best. It reminded me of the pouch Lucy has in the Coriakin's House concept art, to tell the truth. Not that there is any evidence linking the two... It's just something I'd like.

Interesting behind the scenes photos, for sure. I wonder what scene was shot using that little portion of battered Dawn Treader rail high above the water! Did someone fall in? (Ah! Reepicheep?) I don't think this could have anything to do with MLGael's leap as it appears to be a different section of the railing.

Icarus, that's a good point about the storage of the ship's boats. I certainly never noticed them on board the DT. I hope there's a good reason behind that... But I kind of doubt it. I've been wondering about the insignia on the DT's sail, too. Thanks for posting Icarus!

The rowing boats - I wonder if they are all just copies so they will always have a boat available? Just as copies of costumes have to be readily available, so they would need to film the 'same' ship's boat (the one rowing boat) in more than one shot, and it might be useful to have several?If there is going to be a scene showing the departure from Cair Paravel, there'd be other similar boats in the water.

Just in case you missed it in the Word On The Street section, there was a recent magazine article with the guy who did the Leadlights (stained glass windows) for Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It mentioned some of the details for the Scrubbs House set:

Doug walked through the sets in progress, and, at Sound Stage 5, a crew of builders was working swiftly to assemble a free-standing group of houseless, three-walled rooms. “The first batch of leadlights was for the rather drab and conventional Scrubb House, from which Lucy, Edmund and their cousin Eustace depart for Narnia.

Like i said in the WOTS article, i would imagine the leadlights in the Scrubbs house to perhaps be on the front door, or on some windows in the hallway. At the very least it seems the Scrubbs house set is going to be a fair bit more substantial than just the bedroom set.

There is a Vintage 1940's/1950's Women's Bicycle Available on eBay that was used as a set prop in filming of the opening scenes of Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We've already had plenty of reports, photos and castings, that confirm that one of the opening scenes will feature a street scene with some 60 bicycles, several vintage cars, as well as some WWII-era military vehicles, possibly with a backdrop of Cambridge University.

Starting price is AU$250, which seems like a bargain price to own a piece of a Narnia film - assuming of course you could obtain some sort of authentication as to its use in the film (documents, photos, etc)